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Product Description

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that lovers of Pride and Prejudice want to marry Mr. Darcy. Marrying Mr. Darcy is a strategy card game where players are one of the female characters from Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. Players work to improve themselves and attract the attention of the available Suitors. The ladies do this by attending Events and improving their Characters, but advantage can be gained by the use of Cunning. All of their efforts are in hopes of marrying well and becoming the most satisfied character at the end of the game!

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4.0 out of 5 starsA single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of this game!

27 September 2017 - Published on Amazon.com

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Marrying Mr. Darcy is a delightful blend of light strategy elements and plain old-fashioned English major nerdery!

Overall, the setup and gameplay is quite simple: pick a heroine, determine which character traits (friendliness, wit, beauty, etc.) will attract your desired match, draw a card, and follow the instructions--all the while collecting "character points" that will woo a mate! Each heroine begins with different abilities: Lizzy, for instance, comes with automatic wit points, while Charlotte Lucas has a decent dowry. And, despite Darcy's universal appeal, each heroine has one best match for her. (Poor Mr. Collins may indeed contribute much to someone's felicity...or at least their final score!)

When the deck of event cards is gone, players move into the proposal phase to determine--based on character points--which suitors will deem them eligible matches. The roll of the die decides your final fate: will you find a marriage of "true affection," or is your heroine doomed to become an old maid? Regardless of whether you're able to marry the "most amiable man of your acquaintance," the final score is the total of character points + marriage points, which evens the playing field a little. Just because Darcy and Lizzy find each other and earn a whopping 15 marriage points, for example, a poorer match (say, Caroline Bingley and Mr. Collins) may still have accrued enough character points to even out their low marriage points and be admirable competitors.

The game doesn't take long to figure out nor to explain, thanks to the basic draw-a-card, play-a-card, discard-a-card routine. However, despite a fair bit of luck controlling the outcome, there is an element of strategy in both collecting the right character cards AND using your wits to prevent other players from deterring your romance in a most unladlylike fashion! Of course, there are several surprises hiding in the deck to derail your plans (that nasty Mr. Wickham with a surprise elopement!)...and helping you to derail your foes (why, perhaps you will choose to prevent Mr. Bingley from leaving London, thus rendering him unable to propose to your adversary!).

Of course there is much to chuckle about herein. Being an Austen fan is not required, but it does add a layer of depth to the clever action cards. It's always fun to yell, "Scandal!" when you draw such a card and have to face the consequences for kissing militia members. It's even more fun for literary sorts who know all about those frivolous young Bennet sisters and their shameful ways! (Having now played this several times with several different groups after writing the initial review, I can say with much conviction that lovers of Austen--or at least the BBC--express significantly more delight than those unfamiliar with her works. Those who haven't yet imbibed on a heavy dose of Austen's writing can at times seem unimpressed or slightly stumped by the references, even though I initially thought them generic enough to transcend boundaries. I stand corrected.)

All in all, a lightweight, lighthearted game that plays in about 20-30 minutes. Of course it isn't a pure strategy game, and it appeals mainly to a niche market, but the execution of the theme, attention to detail, and jubilant laughter that ensues make this reviewer a most satisfied beneficiary. Gentle reader, consider purchasing this game. If you had ever played, you should have been a great proficient!

A card game with elegantly designed cards, full of heroines, suitors, events, and character cards. The object of the game is to accumulate the most points. There are two stages of the game in which to collect points – The Courtship Stage and The Proposal Stage.

During The Courtship Stage points are earned by collecting Character cards – there are 4 types of Character cards highlighting various attributes – Wit, Beauty, Reputation, and Friendliness. Event cards determine when each player receives, steals, or loses Character cards.

The Proposal Stage is very brief, it is when all the players attempt to match their heroine with 1 of the 6 possible suitors. Each suitor has different requirements (i.e. you must have 5 Wit points to be eligible for Mr. Darcy). Rolling the dice determines if a suitor proposes or not, leaving the possibility of winning the suitor you want totally up to chance. If you are unlucky with the die, you may end up an Old Maid!

OUR EXPERIENCE:

We played one game and it last a little over an hour.

The event cards were full of fun and entertaining tasks. As a Janeite I loved catching all the references and nods to scenes and gatherings that take place in Pride and Prejudice. All of us players, found the cards to be interesting, varied, and great inducements for laughter and merriment. (especially from the men!)

At the Proposal Stage, it was quite interesting to see who we each ended up with. Can’t believe that no one married Darcy!!!

There were one or two Event cards, that left us a little confused as to what we should do and the strategy of using Cunning Points and cards was a little overwhelming at first. In our game, it was perhaps unique that the Mr. Darcy proposal card came up in the first round. (Mr. Darcy becomes engaged in the first round…game over.) Since I wanted to experience real gameplay, I declined Mr. Darcy’s proposal (how shocking, I know!)

OUR VERDICTS:

The Hubby: 7/10 A fun game, but sometimes the amount of rules felt a little overwhelming. I really enjoyed the attractive graphics and overall card designs.

The Gamer: 7/10 I like how each heroine had different strengths and how some of the event cards were specifically beneficial for them. That made the gameplay interesting.

The Mother: 7/10 It took awhile to understand, but once we got going it was easy to get the hang of it. I liked how there was more than one option of suitor for each heroine.

The Janeite: 9/10 I love how this game was still fun and playable even if you had no knowledge of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen! A perfect game for Janeites who want to share their love for Jane Austen with their significant others, family members, and friends (without them feeling tortured or bored!) The game is elegant and the artwork stunning. Literary-based games are the best!

This game was fun to play the first time with people who know Pride & Prejudice. The advertising says it's a board game but it's not. There are a couple stacks of cards and one die--it's a card game but you need table space to arrange and play your cards. The twists and turns are unexpected and funny, and the game makers did a creative and successful job of distilling plot points into game rules. It took about 1.5 hours for us. Our group was adults and an older teen, but young teens could have easily joined us. Some of the game events involved wordy instructions that required patience to understand. Unfortunately, there is not much "role playing" in the game in that there is little interaction between players. Mostly you draw cards and play them on your character (you draw a "+1 beauty" card and set it by your character, who is now +1 more beautiful than she was before, and now it's a bit more likely that Mr. Bingley will propose), while the other players watch your turn. You read aloud what's on the card and everyone has a laugh. In the end, too much of the outcome depends on rolling a die. Unfortunately the male characters (Darcy, Collins, etc) are just inert cards on the table--nobody inhabits them. It will be fun to share the game with a fresh group of Austen fans, but I'm not sure the same group will ever play it more than once or twice. You really do have to know the book/movie to enjoy this game. After all, the objective is to have several women characters compete on the basis of beauty, wit, reputation, & dowry, so that they might receive a marriage proposal. The premise is so dated that you need to be a fan in order to buy into the game.